Former Dos Pueblos basketball standout Shantay Legans has been elevated to head men’s coach at Eastern Washington University.
Legans, an eight-year assistant at the school, succeeds Jim Hayford, who accepted the head coaching job at Seattle University. Legans was the associated head coach under Hayford for the past three years.
Eastern Washington plays in the Big Sky Conference.
“I am both honored and humbled to accept the opportunity to lead the Eastern men’s basketball program,” said Legans said in a press conference. “I want to thank (Athletic Director) Bill Chaves, President (Mary) Cullinan, and coach Hayford for their steadfast commitment to the program, and for their role in establishing a winning tradition here at EWU.
“Finally, I want to express how genuinely excited I am to continue to work with current and future Eagles. I am proud of where we’ve come from and look forward to the places we will go together.”
Legans, 35, has been a part of EWU teams which have win totals of 15, 26, 18 and 22. The two 20-victory seasons are the top two win totals in EWU’s 34-year history in NCAA Division I. He helped developed a quartet of All-Big Sky Conference guards in Glen Dean, Cliff Colimon, Tyler Harvey, and Austin McBroom. Dean was the league’s Freshman of the Year in 2010 and an All-BSC guard in 2011; Colimon earned first-team all-league and All-Big Sky Conference Tournament honors as a senior in 2012. Harvey went from an Eastern walk-on to NBA draftee.
Legans was stellar point guard for Dos Pueblos. As a senior in 1999, he led the Chargers to a Channel League title, was named the league MVP and the Santa Barbara County Player of the Year. He averaged 24 points, nine assists, six steals and four rebounds a game and was selected to the All CIF-Southern Section First Team in Division 2.
He signed a letter-of-intent with Cal and was the starting point guard for the Bears for three years (1999-2002) before transferring to Fresno State, where he finished his college playing career. He was named the team’s most outstanding player for the 2003-04 season.
Legans started coaching as a student assistant coach for Ray Lopes at Fresno State for two seasons before embarking upon a more than three-year career playing professional basketball in Europe. He coached at Laguna Blanca, working as an assistant under Sal Rodriguez from 2007-2009.
He joined the staff at Eastern Washington in 2010. He becomes the 18th head coach in the school’s 109-year basketball history and the 10th as a Division 1 program.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.